he Advance is highly critical of the Archdiocese of New York for closing schools and picturing them as only for the affluent ["The Archdiocese’s priorities," Advance editorial, Jan 17[.

Perhaps you are not aware of those who have sacrificed greatly to send their children to Catholic schools — working two jobs, overtime, no vacations, etc.

New York State requires all children to attend school, yet refuses to allow vouchers for private education. If 10 percent of a private school’s curriculum is religion-oriented, shouldn’t the state reimburse them for the 90 percent required curriculum?

Perhaps as noted several weeks ago, all Catholic schools should close and immediately cause the city Department of Education to come up with almost $5 billion to educate these children and billions more to accommodate classrooms, special ed, school nurses, etc.

Instead of being critical of the Archdiocese, you should be critical of the unfair practices of our lawmakers and the elite who see this as an "establishment of religion" even though 90 percent of what is taught is state-mandated.